It is amazing to me how many of the stories in my books occurred while our family was traveling to and from Illinois for holidays during my childhood. Here is one of my favorites from Exactly As I Remember It: Stuckey’s (A Stuckey’s in Oklahoma, circa 1970) When I was about eight, we were traveling cross country and stopped at a Stuckey’s for some gas. Stuckey’s were wonderful places with food, gas, shot glasses with the names of states on them and such high tech video offerings as “Pong” unfolding in green and black. I guess a Cracker Barrel store is about the closest we come today but retro/folksy can’t even begin to compare to the sheer, shamelessly commercialized wonder of Stuckey’s. I was looking around the store and found a little pocket knife. It was a beauty; low quality blade forged of cheap metals, plastic casing and the name of a state printed on it. It was where form met function and function became art for a second grader. With wide eyes and a thirst for adventure, I asked dad if I could have it. Like an episode of “Kung Fu,” dad flashed back to his life when he was eight. By that time he was driving tractors, butchering hogs and hunting wild game with a shotgun. Uncharacteristically confused by nostalgia and blinded to the realization he was raising a late bloomer, dad bought the knife for me. I walked back to the car feeling the euphoria that comes only to an armed man. It felt good to be packing heat and I found myself hoping for some type of disturbance calling for the swift and decisive action of an armed child missing both of his front teeth. When we climbed into the car, I proudly showed mom, who said, “Fred, he is too young to have a pocketknife.” I smiled and defiantly took the knife out of my pocket, pried it open and ran the blade completely through my thumb. One of us got in a lot of trouble. The other got a Band-Aid. Exactly As I Remember It and my new book Re:member are both available on-line. https://sites.google/site/exactlyasirememberit/order-now
Posted on: Sat, 30 Nov 2013 18:41:52 +0000
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